![](\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/app\/uploads\/2026\/01\/pardon-art-adobe-580x331.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nNorth Carolina\u2019s insurance commissioner has heard nothing from the White House, three weeks after he sent a letter urging the president to refrain from pardoning twice-convicted insurance entrepreneur Greg Lindberg.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Lindberg\u2019s criminal conduct was not incidental, technical, or victimless. It was deliberate, sustained, and directly aimed at corrupting a state regulatory system charged with protecting the public in order to enrich himself,\u201d reads the letter from Commissioner Mike Causey, who wore a wire and recorded a conversation that led to Lindberg\u2019s bribery conviction in 2020 and again in a retrial in 2024.<\/p>\n
North Carolina\u2019s U.S. Senators, Thom Tillis and Ted Budd, both Republicans, have agreed with Causey that Lindberg should not be pardoned, said a spokesman for the NC Department of Insurance.<\/p>\n
A pardon for Lindberg, a reported billionaire who has engaged in extensive litigation over his criminal charges and intertwined insurance enterprises in the last six years, was not on most North Carolina officials\u2019 radar until recently. President Donald Trump has now pardoned so many convicted felons, including a former Illinois governor, a former Tennessee state senator, a Virginia sheriff convicted of accepting bribes, the former president of Honduras convicted of drug trafficking, as well as a Lindberg co-defendant, that the probability of a free pass for Lindberg now seems more likely.<\/p>\n And Lindberg, once a heavy donor to Republican candidates, has engaged in an extensive public relations and lobbying effort to sway Trump. In October, Lindberg hired Trump\u2019s former bodyguard to lobby for a pardon, according to news reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n Trump has blamed his predecessor\u2019s Department of Justice, in part, for what he has called overzealous and partisan prosecutions for the more than 1,600 convictions and arrests that Trump has overturned<\/a> since taking office a year ago. But Causey, a Republican and former insurance agent, said Lindberg\u2019s arrest and trials were based on extensive proof of illegal actions and financial improprieties.<\/p>\n \u201cThe evidence presented was not speculative. It was contemporaneously recorded, exhaustively investigated, and ultimately proven in federal court,\u201d Causey\u2019s letter reads. \u201cMr. Lindberg\u2019s actions were a calculated attempt to undermine regulatory oversight, evade accountability, and silence those whose duty it was to safeguard policyholders, retirees, and working families.\u201d<\/p>\n The harm that Lindberg created for policyholders of his troubled life insurance companies continues to play out, the commissioner noted.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026The consequences of Mr. Lindberg\u2019s misconduct did not end with his conviction,\u201d the letter explains. \u201cThe victims of his illegal activities, including policyholders and employees whose financial security was placed at risk, continue to suffer the repercussions today. These harms are real, ongoing, and irreparable. A pardon would not undo them; it would compound them by signaling that wealth, influence, and persistence can outweigh accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n Lindberg was convicted of attempting to bribe Causey in hopes of removing a DOI official that had exposed Lindberg\u2019s financial regularities, including diverting insurance carrier reserves for his other businesses. An appeals court threw out the conviction due to improper jury instructions, but Lindberg was convicted again in 2024. He has yet to be re-sentenced while courts examine how much in Lindberg may owe in restitution in that and related cases.<\/p>\n In late 2024, Lindberg pleaded guilt<\/a>y to $2 billion in fraud in a related prosecution.<\/p>\n \u201cClemency is most compelling when it corrects a clear miscarriage of justice or shows mercy where the law has operated too harshly,\u201d Causey\u2019s letter reads. \u201cNeither condition applies here. Mr. Lindberg received due process, extensive judicial review, and every protection afforded under the Constitution. His convictions reflect accountability, not excess.\u201d<\/p>\n The full letter can be seen here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Related: NC High Court Lets Stand Lindberg\u2019s Civil Fraud Liability<\/a><\/p>\n NC High Court Allows Liquidation of Lindberg Insurers; He Owes $524M in Fed Case<\/a><\/p>\n Topics<\/span> North Carolina<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Was this article valuable?<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/07\/North-Carolina-Insurance-Commissioner-Mike-Causey-e1739131756335-248x300.png\")
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